Original subtitles

After you've left it all on the field...

With the first selection, the Atlanta Falcons select

Michael Vick.

What drives you back to the game

after you come back from the deepest darkness?

How do you show them the light?

Join me in giving a warm welcome to the 19th head coach

of Norfolk State University football.

Michael Vick has never coached a collegiate football game, ever.

When you're starting a whole new chapter...

-Did you talk to Daddy today? -No.

...what keeps family on the same page?

Don't nobody owe nobody shit out here.

How do you change the culture of me?

Don't put your hands on no coach!

This can't be happening with you right now.

To believe in the power of we.

-Love y'all, man. -I'm with you 100%.

Damn!

Keep believing. If you can't come back from this,

you can't come back from nothing.

This is my life right now.

If the scholarship doesn't happen,

I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

I'm ready to make it to the NFL,

ready to put in the blood, sweat, and tears.

Anybody trying to get in my way

is trying to take food off his plate.

After you've changed the game forever...

Four-two-five speed. Forget about it.

...how do you you change the game for them?

One, two three!

Breaking news in college football...

The newest coach of Norfolk State...

It's official now,

Mike Vick will lead the Norfolk State Spartans.

Vick is the new head football coach at Norfolk State.

-Thoughts? -A joke.

Deion did it. I could do it too.

I'm looking for Norfolk State to make some noise.

To do the things that he accomplished,

you've got to know the game.

There's a lot that he can teach

to a lot of the young minds out there.

He has the capabilities of doing it, but what's your plan?

Team, let's get to it.

- Behold... - The Green and Gold!

The reason why I'm standing before you,

the reason why you're all here--

winning the MEAC Championship.

We've got an opportunity right now

to prove all the doubters wrong.

Do something that's never been done in Norfolk State.

They've never hosted the trophy.

It's a change of program, and it takes a lot.

When I first got a call about the opportunity

to coach at Norfolk State,

my initial reaction was, are you serious?

Spartans fall to one and five.

Knowing that Norfolk State had a 4-8 season last year.

Oh my.

A successful season, that's going to be tough.

I had the opportunity to sign with Sacramento State.

There was more money involved, but I chose to come home.

Being a kid who grew up 30 minutes from here myself,

investing in these kids is a privilege.

Even though it came with more pressure, more scrutiny,

I chose to be here.

I'm a rookie.

But I know the game.

This will be an opportunity to turn the program around.

My plan is to put Norfolk State on the map

in terms of football and change the culture.

You've got to change it over time,

allowing players and coaches

to see what your standards are.

We've got to make every day count.

- Everybody got that? Same page? - Same page.

There's plenty of people that's going to be putting eyes on us.

Let's make history.

As an athletic director,

I think when bringing on Coach Vick to the university,

it was, how can we make an immediate impact?

Winning. People want to be a part of winning programs.

Go Green and Gold!

Norfolk, every day, all day!

I'm the first female here at Norfolk State University

as being an athletic director.

I love being a vehicle that helps student-athletes excel.

Bringing on Michael Vick as our coach

at Norfolk State University has been

just an unparalleled opportunity.

I've never been so excited.

Norfolk State has amazing culture.

They have amazing support.

But there aren't resources like what you might have

at a Virginia Tech or a Florida State.

This program's been unsuccessful so many years.

To turn it around in one season,

it's definitely going to be hard.

- NSU! - Hut!

Him coming to an HBCU,

especially here at Norfolk State,

speaks volumes about his character and volumes about

what he wants to see for his hometown.

How y'all feeling?

We're here. I hope everybody's excited, man.

I respect every single man in here

for what you've done and where we're going.

Now we get to go have some fun.

Coach Vick assembled a great coaching staff.

Coaches with 30-plus years experience.

Coaches that played in the NFL.

So, I think that's going to have a great impact on this team.

I felt like if I ever got a head coaching job,

I would bring with me guys that I feel like I can count on.

A lot of these guys are my good, good friends.

I'm so glad that Brian Sheppard is my offensive coordinator.

Andre Kendrick is my running backs coach.

I learned a lot from them. Everybody.

So I'm going to give them an opportunity.

Let's create this winning tradition.

Go get dubbed number one, baby. One and O. Let's go.

-I wanna fish on the beach. -What you catching?

I'm going to catch a tiger shark.

-Wow. -Can't come back with nothing.

I'm going to catch a shark.

I'm Kijafa Vick, Coach Vick's wife.

Me and Michael have been together almost 24 years.

Hey, y'all, quiet!

I'm so sorry.

We have four kids.

Matez is 23 years old.

Miss Jada is almost 21 years old.

London, soon to be 18.

And then we have my little baby.

Michael is seven.

He's the life of the party.

I absolutely love having my family around.

We just enjoy each other's company so much.

What kind of knot you tied, Mike?

It's called a loop knot.

Is that real or you made that up?

Yeah, you probably made that up.

When Mike got offered this coach position,

our kids decided that if he moved to Norfolk,

they did not want to move to Norfolk.

So we decided to stay in Florida.

-How do you feel being home? -I feel good.

I'm going to miss being in Florida, though.

I know your mom and family are happy you're here.

Making this decision, I probably cried to my mom a couple times.

Oh, dang, you lost the sinker?

-Yeah. You know that happens. -Yeah, that happens.

I grew up 30 minutes away from here in Newport News,

and so I just chose to come home.

But living in two different cities has been hard.

They miss me like I miss them.

How do you feel about being back?

Went to school here, graduated here.

It's not for me.

Virginia is not my happy place.

But it wasn't just my decision not to go.

It was a family decision.

We have a very comfortable home in Florida.

Little Mike's super happy there,

and London is a senior in high school.

I felt like that would be cruel

to take her out of school her senior year.

And he understood it, too.

But I support him.

If that means flying to see him every week, so be it.

Your expectations here are so high.

-I ain't afraid of the media. -The meteor?

I am afraid to fail, but I'm not afraid to try.

What's the toughest part of it for you moving forward?

Little Mike.

He is stuck to you like glue.

Yeah, well, I'm going to see him every week or every other week,

and he's going to be good.

I just know how much he's going to miss you, though.

I'm going to miss him, too.

I got something!

Turn it around, Michael. Turn it the other way.

I can't do this without my family's support.

And the time that you have apart,

it's time that you can't get back.

It's a huge sacrifice that we had to make as a family.

Good job, Michael.

You always the first one to catch something.

-Don't get that near me! -Don't wanna lose the hook.

That looks poisonous.

They got to go to class on game day?

Yeah, that's what I was telling you yesterday.

You didn't tell me this yesterday.

Class didn't shut down till 12.

So, basically, the bus is going to have to

bring them back over to go to class.

-Pretty much. -We're going to figure it out.

No, we need to figure it out right now.

Being a head coach just don't entail teaching football.

It's dealing with issues, dealing with problems,

dealing with what they're going through

in the classroom, eligibility.

It's just always something different.

One thing I'm really appreciative of right now--

that man right there is being super quiet.

Bro, you're chilling.

Envisioning being a coach one day, I always said,

I'll make sure that my son was around football.

We got a ton of big brothers right now

that he can look up to,

especially one of our quarterbacks, Israel Carter.

I've known Israel since he's been around 13 or 14 years old.

His godfather is one of my good friends.

Israel started out at South Florida,

transferred here after he found out

that I was taking a job at Norfolk State.

He's a sophomore with a lot of potential to grow.

He's got to unlock it.

Push up, push up. There you go. Nice.

Coach Vick, I don't necessarily look at him as a coach

just because of how long he's been in my life.

He's more like family to me.

Let's get better today. Let's go.

Because of how much I care about him,

how much I love him outside of football.

Let's go, Izzy.

Coach Vick, he asked me what number did I want to wear...

Make every rep count.

...and I told him I wanted to wear seven.

I know how much it means to him,

and he gave me the honors to wear that number.

Let's go, baby.

Nice.

We working, we working, we working.

I woke up this morning with a knot in my stomach.

Excited for y'all and the opportunity

that y'all got in front of y'all.

But we're going to work a little bit harder,

and we're going to be a little bit more precise

in what we're doing.

Come on, break us down. Let's go, baby.

I wanna win the Heisman trophy.

I wanna be a first-round draft pick.

But having the connection with Coach Vick,

being his quarterback,

I don't ever want to take things for granted.

Grip stay, grip stay.

Even though I've known Izzy

since he's been in high school...

I got to put the team first,

so we have a quarterback competition.

Otto is a senior. A lot of his teammates,

they really look up to him and respect him.

When a new kid comes in, people cling to that.

It's something new, something flashy.

People like new things, and I have to re-earn the spot,

re-beat him out.

But I won the starting quarterback job

my sophomore year, and I've had the job ever since.

When I get locked onto something, I go 100% for that.

Being a true competitor, you find a way to compete

in anything you're doing.

You got to throw it under pressure, you feel me?

I can see people take that the wrong way.

The culture around HBCU football

is people backing you with their whole hearts.

You have a lot of white players at HBCUs.

You go where you can have opportunity.

That's the importance of these HBCUs.

We were founded to give people opportunities.

Whether you're Black, green, or indifferent,

if you deliver, you'll get the opportunity.

It's my last year of college eligibility.

My goal is to play the next level for sure.

I don't want this to be my last year playing football.

I really believe I have a chance

to become an NFL superstar,

so it's very important that I am starting quarterback.

Nice. Good throw.

Otto pushes me to a different level every single day.

If I'm not on my A game,

he can come up right behind me and take it all away.

There you go, Izz.

Whether it's Izzy, Otto-- may the best man win.

At the end of the day, it's Coach Vick's decision.

Nice.

He's somebody that has a great feel for quarterbacks.

Choosing a starting quarterback, it's going to be tough.

Love Israel to death. Always will support him.

But Otto's had more collegiate snaps than Izzy,

and so you have to look at leadership.

You have to look at maturity.

But being a head coach, you know, that's a part of the job.

Hut!

Ohh!

That's on me, Coach. My bad.

So now I'm looking at my quarterbacks

as to who's really taking that leap forward.

It's -up being a head coach.

Squeeze it! Squeeze it!

What the hell are we doing, man?

Now I got a White man...

All right, relax. Relax.

Michael's style of play was

unlike anybody else who came before him.

I really needed to talk to you.

I told you what you was getting ready to run into.

I decided to throw Mike a surprise party.

Big party.

Certainly a day I'll never forget.

Coach, game week, man. It's here.

How are the nerves? Are there any different feelings for you?

I'm just trying to stay as even-keeled as possible.

We haven't had this many requests

to speak to a head football coach ever.

We are seeing an influx of attention

all because Michael Vick is here.

The type of exposure has been amazing.

Having ESPN here for the game

should be awesome for the school.

If I'm those other teams in the MEAC,

I might be shaking in my boots a little bit.

We put pressure on us to win.

Hopefully they go all out and they show up for me.

It's windy day today.

We'll see how good the quarterbacks

throw the ball on a windy day.

Do you know what you can practice on today,

too, in the office?

All day. Tie your shoe.

All right, babe. Have a good day.

Bye, Little Mike.

Come on, Michael. What you doing?

Why you always messing with the door?

Come on, man. Get in the car.

Both Mikes are struggling with being apart from each other.

It's an adjustment for both Mikes.

Let's talk about school.

Mommy's going to take you to class first day.

First day of school, you're going to go in and do what?

Just chill? Be observant?

Check out your surroundings?

And then as soon as you get out, you FaceTime me.

With Little Mike,

us being away from each other is not going to be easy.

I tell my players,

in life, you got to give up a lot to gain a lot.

I'm trying not to get emotional in front of him, but...

I don't want him to ever think it's not okay to cry.

Y'all straight?

-How y'all feeling? -I'm ready for the game.

I'm ready for the game. I ain't finna lie, bro.

Competing in front of Vick, does y'all feel extra pressure?

I'm out here doing something, I'm looking back like,

okay, he got a good reaction, no reaction.

You feel me?

It's not like the bad pressure, but it's pressure for sure.

We're going to rock out, bro.

-For sure. -Who do you think is starting?

Izzy or Otto?

I'd say it's Otto.

-For real? -For real.

He a vet, bro.

Yeah, that's that veteran.

I'm going into my senior year.

I've been starting since freshman year here.

Honestly, I don't know if Coach Vick and the staff

are having opinions of whoever will be the starter,

but I know they'll make the right decision.

How may tackles you gonna have?

I'm trying to go for about 15.

15?

What time is it?

It's that time.

I'm not doing wrong shit for y'all, boys.

Driving in L. I don't even know what the hell L is.

What's L? Put it in drive.

Thank you, Marcus, for joining me to help me plan his party.

Of course.

Michael just loves his brother.

He just adores his little brother.

It's not anything in this world

that he wouldn't do to make sure

that Marcus was okay in life.

So, how do you feel with him being back in town?

Like, do you feel like it's a good thing

for him to be back here?

I feel like it's a good thing,

but I feel like it's just going to be a zoo.

There's already a bunch of friends

that want him to come speak to schools

and speak to this football team.

I bet your mom happy, too, he home.

She get to spend a lot of time with him.

Mama's baby.

-That's mama's baby. -I know.

We have a close-knit family.

He's a hometown guy.

He always love to come back home, go fishing.

My kids love him.

I felt like it was great for him to come back home.

So, we're going to be at Saté having dinner

and then tell him that

there's somebody here that want to meet him, that

-want to donate to the program. -Okay.

I decided to throw Mike a surprise party because

I just wanted to take his mind off coaching

and give him an amazing experience.

And that's what I do. I put experiences together.

I feel like Mike will be real appreciative, though, like,

especially to see everybody in one place.

Family's always been

instrumental to Mike's greatness.

And for Kijafa to step up and just do more for the fam,

Kijafa always know where his heart is.

He's just for the family.

When I was in college, me and Coach Vick met.

We were at a nightclub, and we locked eyes.

We fell in love instantly.

What drew me to him was his smile.

It was just like, bling!

Like a toothpaste ad when I seen him.

It was just like, his teeth were so pretty.

When I met him, I did not know who he was.

One of his friends came over, and he was like,

oh, it's Michael Vick.

So I heard him, I was like, oh,

let me see who y'all talking about.

And when I saw there was a guy that I was smiling at,

I just felt like the inside of me closed up and died

because I'm like, damn, I'm a groupie.

We hung out one time after that,

and we've been rocking with each other ever since.

-Yes. -Wonderful.

This is so nice.

I want this to be a party, y'all.

Like, I want it to be, like, dancing.

It's going to be a great party. I can't wait.

Get ready to turn up.

Here we go, deep pull! X's hang tight!

One way to kind of set the expectations

on the quarterback battle

is the quarterback for us is the CEO.

So he is the guy that runs the show.

That sees the command.

That's moxie, that's savvy, that's just confidence.

Confidence exudes.

And then it's the execution.

Let's watch Otto.

Good feet, good job, good timing.

It's going to be a different Norfolk State this year.

The Towson game is the opportunity

for me to get my first win, but everything is a first for me.

Let's set it up, guys!

I'm a little excited, a little anxious, a little nervous.

I would have never thought in a million years

that I would be sitting in this seat.

All right, let's go!

Whoa.

Nice ball.

I see you, baby boy!

We got us a weapon, yo, good job.

Boy, I see you dock back through that bitch.

There's definitely a real quarterback battle

brewing between those two.

Otto's a great player.

Very athletic, can move, smart player.

He's played in a lot of big games as well,

so he understands what it takes to win.

Izzy Carter, man. He thrives under pressure.

I can see that by the way he carries himself.

I can see that from competing against him, man.

I think both are great.

I feel like it would be difficult

for me to make that decision.

I'm confident going to war with any one of them.

What's the biggest perception of coaching

that's changed since you're in it now?

It's just the day-to-day operations

of a head coach and what you got to deal with.

Dealing with NIL situation, or housing,

or a meal plan, or something in compliance.

You missed a meeting yesterday.

By the time we get to this, I'm just-- I'm exhausted.

Squeeze it, squeeze it!

What the hell are we doing, man?

Let's go!

B.J., B.J., come here for a minute.

We know we're going to have bad practices.

Why you always gotta get so emotional?

Players are acting like they're 12 years old.

Put that on a white man talking crazy, man.

-That shit hit me in my heart. -All right, relax.

-I'm serious, for real. -Relax.

Know what I'm saying? It's too much.

On top of that, I need to make a decision

about who's going to be the starting quarterback

and starting our season the right way.

Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!

But the offense sucked today.

Hey, hey, stop, stop, stop.

Defense sucked today.

You walk out of the practice

feeling kind of shitty sometimes.

Like, damn, what could we do better?

Yo, come on, man.

I feel the pressure.

I feel the responsibility and the task at hand.

Field goal!

Come on, man, let's go!

I know what this means. I know

that it could go south.

Ah!

! Come on, man, all that hard-ass work we did. Shit!

He beat me out?

That's my dog. That's my dog.

-How you doing? -I'm doing good.

I really needed to talk to you.

Deion Sanders has been really helpful.

He's a mentor and a great friend of mine,

I think because of his path and his journey into coaching.

My day today has been exhausting.

I got kids with attitude issues.

I catch myself at times like,

man, I wonder if Coach went through this.

I told you I went through all of that.

I told you what you was getting ready to run into.

What you going through in your life? Please.

-Yeah. -Come on, man.

Just trying to follow in your footsteps, man.

Please, man.

You know what you mean to me.

And I'm going to be thinking about you

when I take the field, man.

Well, I'm praying for you. I'm praying with you.

All right, I'll let you know how the first one went.

This is the first of many.

This is going to be the first of many.

-All right. -Love you, boy.

All right, baby. Love you, too.

Mike thinks that we're just having a dinner for him

for his 45th birthday,

but we're actually having a surprise party after dinner.

Oh, look at you ladies.

Y'all look beautiful.

He's telling all his friends to come here,

and I have to call each one and uninvite them

and tell them not to come.

And I know he's going to be so sad, like,

where are my friends at?

Hey, Mama Brenda.

-Look at you. Yes! -Thank you.

You know, one of the reasons

Michael took this job at Norfolk State

was to be close to his family,

and Michael just loves his family.

Oh, Coach Vick. You look so handsome.

-Y'all look nice. -You look nice, too.

It's really important for Mike's family to be here

because we celebrate birthdays with Michael all the time,

but not at Virginia.

And this party is going to be big.

Look at you, Oogie.

You like a baby on there.

Throughout everything, my family has always been there for me.

They always find ways to make moments special for me.

Are you crying? Don't cry.

So I was emotional from the standpoint

of seeing everybody show up for me.

It means a lot.

I'm so proud of you.

You've been a blessing.

Always.

Growing up, my mom was everything to me.

She actually knew nothing about football.

She just knew I was dreaming a dream

of making it in the National Football League.

When he got into football,

he was like a little Randall Cunningham at 9 years old.

In the projects where we come from,

I would come home from work.

Mike would be playing football

in between all the clotheslines out there,

and they have to duck in and out of those clothes.

So I think that gave him a lot of his skill set,

especially as he got to high school.

Then he goes to Virginia Tech,

becomes a huge, huge name and face in college football.

You can't tell the story of the quarterback position

without talking about Michael Vick.

Michael's style of play changed the game

to a sense that you had to be so aware of his speed,

his ability to find the smallest crease.

It was unlike anybody else who came before him.

...with the speed, he breaks free...

Led them to a college-- a national championship game.

Deep into the end zone. Touchdown!

I'm very thankful for my family

and the support in the community and around the world.

Those are the people that push me hard every day,

that believe in me.

It's part of the reason I'm sitting right here, right now.

-Can we hold hands? -Amen.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for bringing us together, dear Lord,

today on this blessed day of Michael Vick's birthday.

Continue to guide him, dear Lord Jesus,

and just let him have a year full of wins,

because that's what we're waiting for.

-Amen. Yes, Pastor Nikki. -Amen.

Leading up to getting him to the party was going to be hard,

so I had to be creative.

I asked his mom to tell him that

everyone had to make, like, a hard out.

-Happy birthday. -Thank you, appreciate it.

And I felt so bad. I was being real sneaky, real conniving.

And to get him into the venue, I told somebody to call him

and tell him they wanted to donate money to Norfolk State.

They wanted to donate six figures.

Lies.

It's not easy to surprise Michael,

but I'm going to get you.

Surprise!

Oh, man, I'm so surprised.

They're talking about we need to meet some investors,

somebody who wants to help out with Norfolk State.

-I didn't know nothing. -You didn't know nothing?

I was complaining, like, yo, what are we doing?

Kijafa, you keep me on my toes.

Great party.

I just want to say

thank y'all, first and foremost,

everybody coming out, surprising my man, Coach Vick, over here.

Because Coach Vick was a little in his feelings.

The love and support that my man receives from Virginia,

there's no other place I would rather see him being a coach at.

Yes!

I'm really proud of you, son.

I'm proud of the man that you became.

That's good.

It was just an amazing day.

Certainly a day I'll never forget, for sure.

♪ They can't stop me ♪

♪ Even if my brakes was on, I'm still ♪

♪ I'm always here, nobody’s perfect ♪

I'm so happy we got to pull it off.

I think he was totally surprised,

and if he wasn't surprised, he better keep it to himself

for the rest of his freaking life.

I don't know where I'd be without you.

There we go. Get up.

You see what I'm saying?

Otto competed. He competed hard.

I know what I'm looking for.

That being said, I got to go

with the younger guy that we can develop,

and I got to look towards the future.

What happened, man?

No, not about that? Got you.

I ain't babysitting nobody.

From now moving forward, the season is in.

It's on.

There's so much hype around the game.

Anxiety kind of takes over.

The stakes are always going to be high.

They're not tougher than us.

It's the first game.

I'm very, very excited to be here in Virginia today.

I'm praying that we take home the win.

[Ross When First Take first approached us,

we were like, yeah.

We've heard people want to do things here before,

but you never really believe it until you actually see it.

Having First Take come in,

I know the school is going to be extra excited about it

and hyped up for it.

It's great exposure for our young men.

What scares me is that the moment could become too big,

because it could happen.

You know, with me being the head coach,

it is a whole different level of expectations.

There's so much hype around the game

that anxiety kind of takes over.

You know, you want to come into the game with a sense of calm,

but I know that's going to be tough.

The stakes are always going to be high.

Later, Coach.

All these years I've been coming down here,

I ain't never seen this type of buildup.

No, this is something different.

You've created a lot of excitement here, man.

I know it.

Being named the starter definitely brings

a lot of pressure, a lot of expectation.

You got to focus on winning.

Otto, play locked-in for me, man.

-At all times. -I got you.

-At all times. -I got you.

They're not tougher than us.

Four quarters of domination....

Four quarters of domination.

Good evening, Spartan fans.

Glad to have you here.

It should be a good one.

Attack. We're going at them.

Let's see what they got.

Izzy Carter hands the ball off to Kevon King,

and he is stuffed.

One play at a time. One play at a time.

Izzy drops back to pass, and this pass off target.

Let's go, D.

Indorf drops back

to pass under pressure,

and it's caught.

Touchdown.

Towson strikes first.

Oh, hell no.

Spartans down 7-0 early.

Israel, come here.

Don't try to do too much. Just take what they give you.

It's an easy game.

Let's go get it back.

Carter will drop back to pass. He's in trouble,

and he's sacked and nearly lost the football as well.

What the is that?

When Coach Vick said Izzy was going to start,

I was ready to be his biggest fan,

but you got to show the coach

that you don't make the big mistakes.

Israel, throw the shallow quicker.

Throw the shallow quicker.

Going into the game,

you have full confidence of what you guys got going on,

the game plan,

and then as the game finally starts to roll on,

you start seeing you got work to do.

Let's go, D.

Offense, cut the shit.

They not better than us.

Get Otto one drive.

We have to make a QB change.

Hey, Otto. Otto.

Let's put a drive together.

Everything is performance-based.

Let's go. Let's finish strong. Come on, let's go.

I'm not afraid to see what Otto have done.

And it looks like back-up quarterback Otto Kuhns

is coming into the game for Izzy Carter.

And then boom.

Switch flips, and it's Otto.

Otto. Get back in it.

Kuhns dancing around,

dropping back, finds the lane,

and oh, he flips an underhanded pass to Kam Thomas

for the first down.

Let's go, offense!

Kuhns gets out of trouble again.

Rolls right, looking end zone, fires,

and touchdown, the first of the year.

Goddamn!

And wait just a second.

The Spartans penalized.

Take six off the board for the Spartans.

killing us, bro.

Evan Helfrich out for the field goal.

His kick is blocked.

It's blocked.

And the Spartans come up empty again.

Only down 13-0.

This ain't hard to come back from.

One drive at a time. Right in it.

Right there.

We just got to come out, get a stop,

get the offense going.

Make sure y'all hydrate. Hydrate.

Get ready for the next 30 minutes.

Let's go, defense!

We need a turnover, baby. We need a turnover.

Ball is handed off. Up the middle they go.

Ball's loose.

Ball's on the ground,

and the Spartans recover.

Coach Vick will stick with Kuhns

to start the second half.

I decided to stick with Otto as the quarterback

because I feel like he gives the team momentum right now.

He's going with the hot hand.

Going back to pass.

Launches the ball.

And it's caught by Kam Thomas.

They started, we're gonna finish.

Kuhns hands it off to Laudermilk.

Sticks to the outside and he breaks the end zone,

and the Spartans are on the board.

Suddenly, this one is a one-score game.

- This place is going wild. - What the is up!

Come back and win this one, baby.

This one is a one-score game.

This place is going wild.

Come back and win this one, baby.

2nd and 20.

Boyston comes unblocked, Indorf throws,

and it's almost intercepted by Kahleef Jimmison.

It was right in his hand.

We'd have got some momentum,

and we just got to make those plays.

3rd and 20 now for the Tigers.

Looking deep.

Indorf pass to the end zone.

And it's caught for a touchdown.

That could do it, folks.

Of course, I wanted to finish the game off,

because I've pulled off plenty of comebacks

in my career before.

And Coach Vick's debut ends in a disappointment, 27-7.

Beat ourselves. Beat ourselves.

There's no reason we should have lost that game.

We just shot ourselves in the foot.

We lost on discipline, though.

All across the board.

All across the board.

We had ten penalties on offense.

We gave it away on offense.

What I learned from our first game coaching,

you got to be ready for each and every experience.

You know, I felt like I wasn't as proactive on the sideline

as I should have been.

And we let one get away.

See, in the game of football, you got to learn how to win.

It's not going to be easy, ever.

It's a different dynamic after a loss

than I've experienced before.

We had such high expectations

that everyone's kind of in shock that it happened.

Father, I pray for this team. I pray that we unify.

Being able to go on the field and play with my brothers,

it's a great feeling.

Even in defeat, we give you praise.

Amen.

Learn from it, all of you.

NSU, learn from it!

27-7, your final score.

We're with Head Coach Michael Vick.

Questions?

Does it seem like it's a little more of a battle

at the QB position?

I thought Otto played great.

But I still think it's Izzy's job to lose.

He'll be back out there next week.

When Otto got in, he just had some momentum going.

We was like, let's just give him a drive or two.

But we're bringing Israel along.

Israel got to continue to learn.

We'll work hard this week.

We'll be right back at it tomorrow.

Thanks, Coach. Appreciate it.

Daddy!

Hey!

Okay!

We knew Towson was going to be a tough challenge,

but we let one get away.

Better luck next time.

We're going to win the next time.

Right now, I don't know how good they can be.

But I promise to continue to push forward

and compete as hard as we can

until things do happen in our favor.

Next week, right? Bounce back.

Gotta let it go.

Let it go. Move on.

Getting back on the practice field after Towson,

Israel probably could have done some things better.

But I'm expecting him to have a good week of practice

and get ready for the game versus Virginia State.

Uh-uh, uh-uh!

Hey, Izz, come here.

Why was you confused on the Maggie and the call?

Towson game started off rocky from the jump,

and things wasn't really going how we wanted them to be.

But now you got to focus on next week.

Regular 13 pressure, we would I.D. him.

But on locker, we I.D. the Maggie.

Probably be all right.

wrong with Otto?

Otto! What's wrong, man?

How you know that? How you know that?

Didn't I tell you to stay ready so you ain't have to get ready?

All right, so you need to do it again.

Over and over and over again,

if you want to have a continued career in football.

I gave you a fair shot to start.

Man, you don't know how this game going to go.

What if I need you in the second?

You got to start the rest of the season.

What if you got to start the rest of the season?

I'll keep pushing you, dog. Get your reps.

Get your reps.

Hey, yo. I told Otto to quit.

He said he don't want to do reps.

your reps. You don't need them.

Now Israel can start the rest of the season.

I'd rather move forward with what we got

than to have a bunch of guys

sitting around acting like they got them--

somebody owe them something.

Don't nobody owe nobody shit out here.

We're going to get another rep in my practice.

They out they mind.

They think I don't know what I'm doing.

-One, two, three. -Grace!

This is not a football huddle.

Put the past in the past.

Tomorrow is the future.

Being a small guy...

Better keep on eating.

...just gives me another chip on my shoulder.

I think my chances are very high

to make it to the NFL.

Being a D1 athlete and a father...

Say, "What's up, Mama?"

...it's a lot.

If Daddy lose the game,

he got to wear a Hampton shirt all week.

You know what a first down is?

How do Michael Vick children

not know football?

I'm gonna make some decisions

that's going to be in the best interest of this team.

One of our best players is not out here right now.

So how did that feel like,

having to let go of a friend?

It was hard.

Everybody is under evaluation.

You're not going back in the game.

I'm tired of this shit!

We got a lot of football to play.

You say that every week!

Take a knee, take a knee, take a knee.

To see them out here doing their shit, it's a blessing.

This could be the greatest story ever told.

I'm proud of you, baby!

Or it could be the biggest embarrassment.